Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken
Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken
Jesus, I my cross have taken,
All to leave and follow Thee;
Destitute, despised, forsaken,
Thou, from hence, my all shalt be.
Perish every fond ambition,
All I’ve sought or hoped or known;
Yet how rich is my condition:
God and heaven are still my own!
Let the world despise and leave me;
They have left my Savior, too.
Human hearts and looks deceive me;
Thou art not, like man, untrue.
And, while Thou shalt smile upon me,
God of wisdom, love, and might,
Foes may hate, and friends may shun me;
Show Thy face, and all is bright.
Man may trouble and distress me,
’Twill but drive me to Thy breast;
Life with trials hard may press me;
Heaven will bring me sweeter rest.
O ’tis not in grief to harm me
While Thy love is left to me;
O ’twere not in joy to charm me,
Were that joy unmixed with Thee.
Haste thee on from grace to glory,
Armed by faith and winged by prayer;
Heaven’s eternal day’s before thee,
God’s own hand shall guide thee there.
Soon shall close thy earthly mission;
Swift shall pass thy pilgrim days;
Hope shall change to glad fruition,
Faith to sight, and prayer to praise.
IT MAY HAVE BEEN the story of a Methodist woman named Mary Bosenquet that inspired Henry Lyte to write this hymn. Mary was the daughter of a wealthy English merchant and enjoyed the finest of clothing and jewelry—until she attended some Methodist meetings and was converted. Then she was disinherited by her father and lived in a two-room house furnished with a borrowed table and chairs. As a member of the persecuted Methodists, she was threatened with injury, and the windows of her house were frequently broken.
Lyte is perhaps better known as the writer of “Abide with Me” (January 27), but the words to this hymn are no less powerful. While the language is archaic, the sentiment is one that is timeless: “O ’tis not in grief to harm me, while Thy love is left to me; O ’twere not in joy to charm me, were that joy unmixed with Thee.”
“If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.”
Mark 8:34-35
From the book
